Sunday, 20 October 2013

Perceiving Violence

-Brian Mendonça

Violence is all around us. You don’t have to go far to see
it. There are many forms of violence, viz. physical, emotional, epistemic.
We have to live with violence. We have no choice. Sometimes our very existence,
in terms of our diet, is predicated on violence. A visit to the market in the
early morning confronts you with lambs tethered for slaughter while transport
vehicles bring squawking chickens to eke out their final hours in overcrowded
cages. At the Sonepurmelanear Patna in Bihar the pitiful sight
of animals would move anyone to tears.

Physical violence usually works on the premise that might is
right. If you are a more powerful country it gives you the right to invade a
smaller country – for whatever reasons – and annex its resources, be it oil or
energy. Violence in the strike at Abbotabad authorized force to kill, giving
rise to similar sanction in future, which flies in the face of international
law which protects the sovereignty of a country.

When a strike was proposed recently on Syria I asked my students
to take a call. Megan who sits at the front bench rose and said, ‘I am a
Gandhian. I cannot support this action.’ I was struck by her conviction. How
many of us would do the same?

On 2ndOctober
as I sipped my tea at breakfast I heard the sounds of a speech being made in
the nearby school which I think was reminding students of the significance of
the day. It made me wish that I was one among the students. In my school days
we had many heroes to emulate. Today I clutch at thin air. The abject apathy to
the values of Mohandas is astounding. Hardly any social events – besides the
government-sponsored functions --had been organized, to use the day to
reinforce his values. If there was no constant reminder of good action, how
could bad action be remedied or prevented?

The media bombards us with images of violence. In the case of
rape the coverage takes on a voyeuristic hue. Everyone has an agenda. In
popular TV programmes like C.I.D. featuring case studies of the police force
and how they crack the case, images of the dead are routinely shown repeatedly.
Torture and physical violence isde
rigueur.

Children are often receivers of violence. A tired father may
come home and whack the child for a minor transgression. The child may look
quizzically, not say anything, but internalize it and manifest violence later.

We need to be always alert to violence. It takes courage to
recognize violence and intervene. In Mumbai two Goan boys lost their lives
because they intervened to stop a girl being teased.

We can turn a Nelson’s eye to the violence around us. When we
move to derecognize the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary in Goa we do violence to the
tiger habitat. Violence demeans the perpetrator. Let us make an effort to
reduce violence in our lives.